J-pouch Life

Since I got home from the hospital, my stoma has been somewhat retracted. I have a loop ileostomy now, so I have two pieces of my intestine forming my stoma instead of one. The working part retracted quite a bit, but went to the point of near disappearance a couple of days ago. Because the [...]

Fibre Supplements I started to respond to Brevin’s question about fibre supplements, but the comment was getting too long, so I figured I’d make a new post about it. I just started using fibre supplements during my last hospital stay. I hadn’t needed them before but after the incident with the blockages, I was losing [...]

It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted, but it was for good reason. First, the reason was that I got back into my regular life after my second surgery and stopped thinking about UC all the time (I planned to put the third step off until the fall, as a way to manage my [...]

The NYTimes publishes articles about “Modern Love” that I often finding touching and interesting take on what relationships are about. I just read this article that is written by a man whose wife became a paraplegic in a car accident. It’s a wonderful story and I think it’s relevant here for two reasons: 1) it’s [...]

It’s time for my surgery update! To recap, I had emergency surgery last May, and things did not go well. I had had a temporary ileostomy since then and it took me a long time to feel well enough to go back into surgery. On February 6th, I had my second surgery. The plan was [...]

I know that, during my last hospital stay, my partner spent a lot of time keeping a lot of people in the loop about my condition. This time, I’m hoping to be able to do more of it myself, and I’m thinking of trying out this new site I found, Care Pages, which allows you [...]

I just wanted to make a quick note about Prednisone, as many people with UC (and many other diseases) end up taking it. Back when UC was a very minor part of my life, my biggest fear (because surgery didn’t even seem like a possibility) was having to take Prednisone. I try to talk to [...]

A commenter recently asked about how to take care of a loved one who has UC. This has come up before and I have tried to assemble a list of things I found helpful from my partner. Please add any other suggestions in the comments (I’d love to hear what others have to say). 1. [...]

I’m unsure how things are in other countries, but in Canada (given our universal health care system – yay Canada!) there is always a looming chance that surgery will get bumped. I have been scrambling to get things ready for when I go into surgery and was planning a celebratory weekend after my PhD proposal [...]